This is a public service message for a town mired in a prolonged sports slump.

Kris Bryant is must-see.

University of San Diego baseball coach Rich Hill has been asked so often to talk about his junior third baseman that he’s run out of descriptions.

“You start using these adjectives about Kris as a person and a player,” Hill said. “They’re all off the charts.”

And they come short of doing the full job. So Hill explains to the waves of questioners: “You actually have to see the kid play.”

I did just that.

Rode the Toreros bus up to Cal State Northridge on Tuesday. Watched Bryant go 0-for-5 in an 8-4 loss.

All in all, could hardly have been more impressed had Bryant gone 5-for-5.

Save for one strikeout, his outs were scalding. His fearless ability to use every strike allowed was on display in every at-bat.

At 6-foot-5 and 215 pounds, he can, as they say, grow into his body. When he runs between innings, he is all arms and legs, like a baby giraffe. Yet he played right field with a grace that was practically a virtue. And he runs the bases well enough to have five stolen bases (in six attempts), eight doubles and a triple to go along with his national-best 12 home runs.

O-fers happen in baseball. There hasn’t been a hitter at any level who doesn’t know that many times over.

Dejected might not be strong enough of a word to describe Bryant during the first part of the trip home Tuesday. A couple hours later, he said, “It happens. I figured it would as some point. I’ve been going pretty good.”

Yeah, true.

You know what doesn’t happen too often? A stretch Bryant has been rocking that makes “The Natural” look underwritten.

Among the feats by Bryant those who saw it will be recounting for years is a home run against Saint Louis on March 9 that may or may not have cleared a light standard beyond Fowler Park’s left field fence.

“It grows every time it’s told,” he said. “It was just so high, so deep. It disappeared into the night.”

That’s the stuff that spawns legends.

It was just the start.

Three home runs in a March 14 game against Brigham Young, including a walk-off shot to left field, was followed two nights later by another walk-off homer in the 14th inning.

Hill says, “I don’t like to compare.”

But then he makes this comparison regarding Bryant: “Jayson Werth, Troy Glaus, Pat Burrell. Three of those guys wrapped into one.”

Hill didn’t just pull those names from his brain’s ether. The major league scouts whose livelihoods depend on getting it right when assessing college players have used those names in describing Bryant. The comparison is mainly to Werth’s speed and arm, to Glaus and Burrell’spower.

Over the 14 games that led into this weekend's home series with second-ranked Oregon State, Bryant batted .449 with six home runs, 20 runs scored and 17 RBI. He was walked 18 times in that span.